Halfway through a company meeting, the new assistant, Candice Grote, suddenly rose to her feet. She looked straight at me and announced, "Debra Felton, you're fired. Pack your things and leave today." The conference room fell silent. I calmly took a sip of tea before turning to my husband, Wade Price. "Your assistant's got some nerve. She just fired the chairwoman right in front of the CEO."

After my mother, Rose McCauley, entered a Valebridge hospice, Duncan Trevelyan kept a bedside lamp on for me every night. He promised to take me there whenever the hospice called. On the last night, I swallowed the sleep aid he handed me. When I woke up, my phone showed 19 missed calls. My mother had died before dawn, calling my name until the end. At noon, my husband came home after a night away, with his first love, Sabrina Ashford, at his side. I asked why he'd put my phone on silent. "Her fiancé called off the wedding yesterday afternoon. Last night, she said she didn't want to live anymore. Your mother had nurses. Sabrina only had me." "Her wedding was canceled, so you made sure I couldn't see my mother one last time?" He stepped in front of Sabrina. "Your mother is gone. Are you really going to break someone who's still alive, too?" Then the nurse sent me my mother's final recording. Again and again, Mom called my name and asked if Duncan had decided not to come with me. At last, his face went pale. I stopped the recording. I didn't ask another question. I was Hazel McCauley, and I was done waiting for someone who never showed up.

My name is Vivian Parker. Daniel Foster and I had been together for eight years, and among our college friends, we were known as the perfect couple. At a reunion, we played Truth or Dare, and everyone had to reveal the contact name they'd saved for their partner. I showed everyone mine: My Fiancé. But my best friend, Sabrina Walsh, clutched her phone tightly. "You've been married for seven years. Why are you still hiding that husband of yours in Veymont?" Laughing, I snatched her phone away—then my smile froze. Beside the contact name "Hubby" was a photo of Daniel. She hurried to grab the phone back just as a call came in. In the struggle, she accidentally put it on speaker. "Honey, why aren't you home yet? I picked up Leo. He keeps asking for Mommy." Then their son, Leo Foster, piped up over the speaker. "Daddy, are we going to get Mommy?" The entire table fell silent. I looked down at the engagement ring I had worn for seven years. Daniel had never given me the wedding he promised. Yet he'd spent those same seven years building a home with my best friend.

Stonebridge's youngest billionaire married me to spite the woman he loved first. For all three years of our marriage, she had always stood between us. When her family went bankrupt, he paid off their debts. When she wanted to return to acting, he bought shares in a film studio. Everyone said I was nothing more than a pathetic replacement. I never argued. I even smiled and explained away every scandal involving the two of them. Then I became pregnant unexpectedly. Before he knew it, the pregnancy was ended. My husband, Damon Greyback, pinned me against the sofa, his eyes bloodshot, demanding to know how I could let it happen. I gently traced his brow and answered softly, "Because I don't love you, Damon." The man I loved was someone else.

My fiancé, Conrad Ashford, lost his sight saving me. For ten years, I kept his family business afloat and poured money into a research team until he could finally see again. But once his sight returned, he reached for another blind woman's hand. Caring for him, he said, was a debt I owed. Leila Keats's love was different. It needed no reason. He threw me out of the company. Then, at our engagement party, he demanded that I cure the woman he truly loved. I agreed. I would consider the debt repaid. But during her treatment, I uncovered the truth: he had never lost his sight saving me. He had known that all along, yet let me drown in guilt for ten years. Two months later, she regained her sight, and I acquired his company. When Conrad accused me of trying to force him back, I looked at their clasped hands and smiled. "You stopped funding the research. There's only enough medicine left to preserve one person's sight. "So, Conrad, who will you choose? Yourself or her?"

Just before my engagement party, the actress my fiancé had invited cornered me in the dressing room. She held up her burgundy nails with a smile. "Your fiancé chose this set for me himself. Pretty, aren't they?" I stared at the silver star on her nail and said nothing. The night before, I had worn a mask and gone to see her, posing as a fan. Once she was drunk, she pulled out a photo and bragged about sleeping in his bed. The photo had been taken in the bedroom I shared with my fiancé. Now she hadn't recognized me and was waiting to watch me squirm. Instead of answering, I smiled. After all, I had a surprise waiting for them too.